Artist Award tailpiece seemingly unavailable

The thread title says it all. The tailpiece on my 1983 Artist Award (which I've owned for over 25 years) gave out, and it may not be replaceable. I have contacted Guild, but the current tailpiece that Guild uses is different than mine. On the new AA Patrician, the input jack is on the lower bout, but on mine it's on the tailpiece. I have seen the $595 (!) tailpiece on ebay. It's 'way too expensive for me to purchase, plus there is no return option, so if I bought it and for some reason it did not fit I would be out of luck. Despite the fact that Guild has built upwards of 1800 Artist Awards, this part seems to be unavailable. If I had a tailpiece failure on a <gasp> Gibson I'd be able to replace it with the correct piece, no problem.

If I cannot replace it with an actual Guild tailpiece I'll probably buy a wooden Benedetto tailpiece from Stew Mac and have it fitted to my guitar. A luthier would have to replace the binding at the tailpiece with bone, and it would no longer have the lyre tailpiece that we all know and love.

Sorry for all the whining. By the way, here's a picture:

Have you looked at X-500/X-700 tailpieces? You would have to drill for the jack, but the size might work.

Apologize if it's a dumb question but have you tried Hans Moust, our resident genii? :
http://www.guitarchives.nl/guitarsgalore/

OK, I'll admit that I know almost nothing about archtop, but have you taken the tailpiece to a metalsmith to see if the one you have can be repaired?

Neal

adorshki said:

Apologize if it's a dumb question but have you tried Hans Moust, our resident genii? :
http://www.guitarchives.nl/guitarsgalore/

Click to expand...

That would be my first choice.

FNG said:

That would be my first choice.

Click to expand...

Yes indeed. Hans found me a nice bridge base that seemed to be eluding me. ride: BTW, that's some break. Any damage to the guitar top? Yikes!

Holy Moly!

I think finding a metalsmith is a good option (NOT a metalworker/welder, but a silversmith/metalsmith).

A good quality solder could possible rescue it.

The other option is to find a matching X-500/X-700 tailpiece and have a good machinist drill the hole for the plug.

Now I'm realizing that you don't need the harp portion to match, you just need a mount.

I mistakenly bought a left-handed chrome tailpiece off of ebay a few years ago. It's just like this one on Hans' website:

http://www.guitarchives.nl/guitarsgalore/parts_detail.php?id=62

If I can get hyper-accurate measurements of your mount, like placing it on a scanner or photocopier with a ruler next to it, I have no problem with taking mine apart, drilling the holes and sending the mount portion to you. I can get that done in maybe 30 days time give or take.

Yes, it will be like having a mis-matched pair of socks, but you'll be up and running and can keep a lookout for a "real" one.

If mine is a good fit, then you can even send it in to get gold-i-fied.

Los Angeles, thanks for the generous offer. I may take you up on it, but first I'm going to keep looking for awhile. Apparently this type of failure is fairly common on AA's. I opened up the case one day and there it was. At first I didn't realize that the tailpiece had failed. I doubt that it can be repaired. I sent Cordoba an email over a week ago, but I'm not optimistic. How strange. I wouldn't have imagined that a tailpiece would just let go.

I don't know how common a problem it is, but things like this do happen, and not just with Guild harps. The vintage Epiphone frequensator tailpiece is what I am most familiar with in terms of needing the tailpiece fixed or replaced. I'm sure there are many others as well. Let us know what you hear from Cordoba/Guild.

They're cast metal...metal fatigues under stress...not surprising at all...tailpieces are under a lot of stress...had a ricky 620-12 where the bracket did the same thing...when it was in the case, fortunately...you wouldn't want that experience when you were playing it...

If Hans doesn't have one, you might want to take up the kind offer from Los Angeles...any jeweler can gold plate it for you...some gold, some acid, a bit of electricity...done.

I must admit that I am shocked! I thought this was a problem of newer Chinese guitars that have tailpieces made of low quality metals. This will give me nightmares, I am sure of it. Good luck to dmargo, I hope you will find a solution that is satisfactory.

Update: Guild emailed me to say that they only carry parts for current products. The new AA has a different tailpiece than mine. I expect that this will be a problem with other Artist Award tailpieces as they age. Thanks for the words of support.

Well, after several months here's an update. I bought a used intact tailpiece on ebay (thanks, LA, for pointing it out). It is being replated as I write this. The picture shows it next to my original. After it is installed on the guitar I'll post a new picture. Thanks to everybody who replied.

BTW, it looks like the hinge (part that broke on mine) is rolled, not cast. The replacement tailpiece itself is a bit different than mine. If you look at the underside of each. I don't have a picture of the difference.

Here's the plated tailpiece.

http://rs934.pbsrc.com/albums/ad188...1_110601_zpsafntcmjp.jpg~320x480?t=1435256051

Wow, are you still looking for this or is that what you ended up with? It sure looks nice. Viva la Harp!

I'm glad that I saw this thread. I'm a sucker for happy endings. That is one beautiful axe, dmargo. Yours too, Sleeko.

Thanks Synchro!